Details

LOT 0100

'The Stanford Place Collection' Attic Marble Stele Anthemion Finial

4TH CENTURY B.C.

18 1/2 in. (21 in.) (57 kg total, 47 cm (53.5 cm including stand)).

Carved in the form of an elaborate palmette with stems in the form of spiral tendrils rising from acanthus leaves, a small rosette at the top between the converging fronds; holes on the reverse for attachment to shaft; mounted on a custom-made display stand.

Provenance

Acquired on the New York, USA, art market, 1994.
with Christie's, London, The Stanford Place Collection of Antiquities, 26 April 2006, no.30.
Private collection, UK.

Accompanied by an academic report by Dr Raffaele D’Amato.
Accompanied by copies of the relevant Christie's 'Stanford Place Collection' catalogue pages.
This lot has been checked against the Interpol Database of stolen works of art and is accompanied by search certificate number no.12614-235145.
This lot has been cleared against the Art Loss Register database, and is accompanied by an illustrated lot declaration signed by the Head of the Antiquities Department, Dr Raffaele D'Amato.

Literature

See Möbius, H., Die Ornamente der griechischen Grabstelen klassischer und nachklassischer Zeit, Berlin, 1929; Vedder, U., Untersuchungen zur plastischen Ausstattung attischer Grabanlagen des 4. Jhs. V. Chr., Frankfurt, 1985; Riegl, A., Problems of Style: Foundations for a History of Ornament, Princeton, 1992; Clairmont C. W., Classical Attic Tombstones, Kilchberg, Switzerland, 1993; Grossman, J.B., Greek Funerary Sculpture: Catalogue of the Collections at the Getty Villa, Los Angeles, 2001; Brinkmann, W., Wünsche, R., Bunte Götter, die Farbigkeit Antike Skulptur, München, 2004.

Footnotes

This iconography was adapted from the Egyptian and Asiatic honeysuckle, also known as lotus palmette. First depicted on Attic white-ground lekythoi; in the 5th century B.C., then as architectural decoration, carved marble examples of this type of funerary monument were erected in the 5th-4th century B.C. It was not unusual for the anthemion to be of higher quality than the figures sculpted and painted beneath it. One splendid example is the stele of Paramythion (cf. Brinkmann-Wünsche, 2004, pp.148ff.). These memorials, originally painted, were venerated by families, anointed with oil, decorated with ribbons, and graced with offerings of food.